How does your school refer to its contingent faculty?
I take it that many of you in this community are or have been what the AAUP considers "contingent faculty," that is to say "part- and full-time faculty who are appointed off the tenure track." However, it's my understanding that almost every college and university in the U.S. now staffs a multitude of adjuncts to fulfill demand, and so just about everyone here must encounter some variation of the academic underclass throughout each term. What terms or phrases have you seen or heard employed when referring to contingent faculty? For example, my department has recently started referring to its adjuncts as "affiliates" in its department-wide e-mails, which I don't find offensive so much as fun and amusing. While this question is ripe for humorous responses--after all adjuncts have been the butt of the joke for a long time now--it would be equally amusing to receive earnest replies as well.